Review: All or Nothing

All or Nothing by Felice Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Earlier this year I read The Shape of You by Felice Stevens and instantly fell in love. I wanted more of the author’s work. I wanted to read more of the wonderful stories. Thus, I jumped at All or Nothing as soon as the chance came about. I may not have loved All or Nothing as much as I loved The Shape of You, but I still found it to be a wonderful read.

Despite being the third book in the Together series, All or Nothing works perfectly fine as a standalone novel. I do now wish to go and read Learning to Love and The Way to his Heart – not because of a lack of understanding, but because I wish to better understand the characters from those stories. All or Nothing tells the story of a character introduced at the start of the series, meaning references are made to prior events – another element that left me wanting to read the prior books.

Whilst All or Nothing was an enjoyable read, as I said, I did not enjoy it quite as much as I enjoyed The Shape of You. The Shape of You was a four star read with a few five star moments thrown in; All or Nothing was a four star read with the occasional three star moment slipping through the cracks. As a whole it was a solid read, but there were some points in this story where I wasn’t completely content.

Mostly, my issues were to be found at the start of the book. Although I was interested in the story and wanted to know more, I found I was unable to connect with the characters. I didn’t particularly like them all that much and I wasn’t shipping the relationship. Due to this, I wasn’t pulled into the start of the story. As the story progressed, however, I came to enjoy the characters and the events a lot more. I do feel as though there was a bit more stereotypical angst in this one than I would have liked, but it played in well with the story. It simply failed to grab me in the way I had hoped from the very start.

Once I was pulled into the story, though, I found it was impossible to put down. Upon being sucked into the story, I found myself powering through the remainder of the book. I wanted to know what happened, I wanted to see how things came together, and I couldn’t wait to witness the happily ever after we all knew to be heading our way.

Overall, this was a fun read. I’ll certainly be reading more Felice Stevens books, and I’ll be needing to read the prior stories in this series.

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